This was a situation he could only dream of, nearly every shinobi in the village was helping evacuate the populace or stalling the Kyuubi's advance to the Hokage monument. Ergo, nearly every fortified or guarded portion of the village was left to do with as he wished. To anyone it was a golden opportunity, it was cause enough to smile if it didn't show a catastrophic security problem in the making. Ōhnoki would gladly wipe half of Iwagakure off the map if it would drop him into Konoha during this night. He would see to the security issues in about a month, his actions tonight would be too obvious if he did it sooner.
Danzō walked down the long hall with a satisfied glint in his eye. The dancing flames outside the windows cast soft orange light through them, the swallowing darkness in between the windows being the only breaks in the light. The muffled roar of the Kyuubi sounded down the hall, Danzō smirked to himself. The Kyuubi would be sealed tonight, by the Yondaime, Sandaime, or the Gama-Sennin's hands. An interesting morsel of information he received not three months ago let him know now who the Jinchuriki would be.
'Namikaze Naruto. . . Or perhaps Uzumaki' Danzō thought as he strolled down the hall. The Kyuubi vessel would be a tremendous asset down the line, it would not do to have a unused Jinchuriki. If perhaps by some tragic event, the knowledge of the boy's burden become commonplace, the civilian populace would fear and hate the young boy. Danzō would do his level best to comfort the boy when the treatment became too much for the boy to bare. As Danzō reached a window offering a surreal view of the great beast framed by the veritable pyres spotted around the village, he chuckled lightly. Yes. . . He would take the boy under his wing and help him understand the truths of the world.
Danzō turned away from the window, exactly 87 steps into the hall he turned to the wall to find a set of double doors. The dark oak doors were thrown open as people had rushed out to follow the orders given to them. As Danzō walked through the open doors he thumbed the file under his left arm, the slim pieces of paper were more dangerous to him than any blade. This was after all the first document he had written and signed, sans the obvious counsel-work, in over eighteen years. His everyday work was much too sensitive to put on paper. But this culmination of paper was hard-earned, he had lost just under two squads in various ways to get this done.
A masterful balance of favors, lying, blackmail, persuasion, and promises had born this file. Blank pages with the approving signature of eight council members, in layman's terms enough to pass anything he penned on those blank pages. If he were a lesser man he would have drooled at the potential on those slips of paper. As it was, he had written an advanced academy curriculum that toed the line of child abuse, and would definitely receive some backlash from parents, and wouldn't survive a minute in the council-room. But it didn't have to, all he had to do was Place the file into the academy "in-box" and the Chunin teachers and administrative staff would do the rest for him.
To some, and even to himself sometimes it seemed like a wasted chance at nearly anything he wanted. But this would benefit Konohagakure as a whole, better Shinobi would take this village farther, and if those who failed the program made it into his ROOT program, he certainly wouldn't complain. Now to leave, he needed to make sure the clan children lost in the chaos were safe in his care after all, it wouldn't due to be late.
(~)
Izuku, after he finished drowning himself in sake to try to forget the horrors he saw not one hour ago, went back to his post. Sure he was drunk, but that wouldn't inhibit his duty! Besides, the only time anyone came to his desk was when village infrastructure changed (Only once in the past two decades after the Uchiha clan were moved to the edge of the village), or when the academy went through major overhauls, It was a strange mashup of responsibilities to be sure. Izuku stumbled towards his desk and stopped dead at the file on his desk. Did he leave that there? More importantly did he sanction that?
"Ooooooh shiiiiit, I'm going to. . To get d-demoted. Hehehehehe." The Chunin giggled as he hiccuped his way through the sentence, he was drunk on the job, he was technically on the clock. He was told he could go home but he just felt like thinking at his desk, now this was to be pushed through tomorrow morning, he had to go through this and verify it. All while drunk, this had the potential to ruin a generation of Shinobi. Knowing his luck, it'd do just that. . . shit. Izuku waddled to his desk and sat down slowly. His vision slowly closing up, he drank way too much. Cold water would help, Izuku rose again, only to look at the file sitting heavily in the basket.
Izuku fell back into the chair, he was losing focus. 'Finish this and then I am free for the day. . . night. . . whatever.' Izuku opened up the file and read through it at what he assumed was a brisk pace. An hour later he leaned back in his chair with a stupefied expression on his face as he asked himself. "What is this?" The plan was great on paper, but there were these little snags that took the training too far or just didn't make sense. One good idea was for students to pair up for group scores that would be divided up based on personal performance. Which was great, but it had students stay with those partners the whole academy. However if the students switched partners every month or so it would not only promote teamwork with the entirety of the class (versus the standard three shinobi cells) but it would also give the students more chance to learn and help each other.
Izuku spun side to side in his chair as he thought about the documents in front of him. "I'll be demoted either way when Ishida sees me hungover, let's have some fun." Izuku took out a stack of paper from his left drawer and using the intuitive ability to copy handwriting available to Shinobi he adjust the documents as he saw fit. Izuku spent time long into the morning, daybreak was soon at hand, but he was finished. His drunkenness replaced only by a headache and a desire for water Izuku marvelled at the thing in front of him, at what he just did. Adjusting documents like this as the middle man was risky and fairly obvious but it actually cut down funding with his additives and various cancellations. So there wouldn't really be a problem would there?
He had done enough so that the documents would pass muster. Izuku organized all the files and placed them in the metal basket on the left corner of his desk. He sighed as he got up and walked out the doors probably for the last time, he hated this job anyways. He had enough money saved up so he could survive without it. Izuku turned around and closed and locked the doors. He stared at the dark wood of the double doors for a few moments before he walked away feeling light. Now that he looked back some of those training drills we're cruel, no other way to say it. He had done right by the "King" of Konohagakure, the next generations would far surpass him now, and he couldn't feel better about it.
(~)
Three weeks, it was mesmerizing to him how the village had doggedly scraped through the loss. The mass funeral was grandiose and uplifting, the memorial stone had long since run out of room by the time the second great war rolled around. Instead now there were engraved names all along the base of the Hokage monument, the care the Carver took with each name was in of itself a graceful send-off. Sarutobi Hiruzen gazed up at the four great heads above him from the flat roof of the Hokage tower, soft puffs of smoke issued from his lips. The village looked up at those faces daily, it was a status reminder that he wished didn't exist at times. When people look up to you, it makes you look down at them after all. So every morning he walked to the base of the mountain to stare at those carved names on an equal setting, to remind himself that he wasn't a better person than anybody on that wall, just more powerful and with better teaching.
Hiruzen cast his brown eyes away from the monument and out towards his precious village. He brought his pipe to his lips and closed his eyes as he let the tobacco fill his lungs and sent a relaxing pressure to his mind. He let out the smoke as a short breeze carried it towards the west. Three weeks had passed and the rebuilding was well underway, he had seen to the construction of a secondary building for the hospital. He had to fight with all the grim determination he had adopted from the Nidaime to insure it was built before the thrashed marketplace. He shook his head, the merchants were remarkably effective at stopping him for a few days but he had put his foot down, lives came before gold. Hiruzen focused briefly on the empty Manor far away in the trees, he looked away as a flash of pain lanced through his heart.
He hadn't had the courage to go to that hallowed home, Biwako was gone, taken by the fox. He knew he would break down the moment he stepped foot in that place, he couldn't afford that right now, not with how things were. He straightened his posture as a group of Genin raced by on the rooftops below, then slouched slightly again as they crested his field of vision. He had to remain strong for the village, Kumogakure was stepping up their thinly veiled assaults on Konoha Shinobi cells. There were too many excuses of "conflicting mission objectives" for it to be anything else, the Sandaime Raikage was a brute in tactics but he made it work for his village had flourished under him. Konohagakure couldn't be seen as weak right now, the great bear to the north would attack. "Hokage-sama?" Hiruzen tilted his head back to peer at the Chunin behind him. "Ah Morita-kun! How can I help you?"
The mousy brown haired man smiled/grimaced at the aged Kage, "Shikaku-sama wishes to speak with you, it sounded urgent." The Kage's eyes snapped open at the wording as he turned to face the Chunin messenger. The man quickly understood how his message could be misconstrued, "Well. . . urgent in the normal laid-back way sir. Nothing earth shattering I assure you." Hiruzen discreetly let out a breath, Shikaku was only urgent when things were truly bad, he didn't think the village could take another decisive blow such as the Kyuubi right now. "That's good, thank you Morita please do insure that my advisors know I will be busy. I shall head off to see Shikaku then."
The brunette nodded and took off back into the bowels of the tower leaving him alone on the roof. He took a few moments to finish off the remaining tobacco from his pipe and popped a small mint into his mouth. Shikaku while he didn't say anything did look slightly peeved when his breath smelled of smoke. Hiruzen chuckled to himself as he vanished from place to the office of his Jounin commander. Said man was sitting behind his desk writing on a slim piece of paper used for hawk messaging, he looked up and reached out to gesture for the Kage to sit down. Hiruzen did so without hesitation, and occupied himself with looking at the man's newly taken family photo containing Shikaku, his wife Yoshino, and their newborn son Shikamaru.
Shikaku ran a palm down his scarred face as he finished the missive and sent it off with the hawk perched on his window sill. Then he sat back and looked at his leader, "I don't know where to start with this actually." Shikaku pointed to the stack of files on his desk, "Secure bases were raided during that night. We only just found out what they took, and who they killed." Hiruzen steeled his posture and gruffly asked, "Who and what Shikaku." "That old hellion Suzume." Hiruzen looked down for a moment, Suzume Takeshi was their premier creator of Katon jutsu. "Why did it take so long to notice her absence?"
Shikaku once again gestured to the stack of files on his desk. "Impersonation, some type of long lasting clone, the worst thing is that she went on a 'trip' a week ago. She could have given the information she stole to anyone, I know what you're going to say. Our trackers were busy with the Kiri Hunter squad skulking about near Outpost 37." Hiruzen sighed as he took in the rich tones of the wood around him, taking a moment to think he looked back at his chief strategist. "What is missing then?" Shikaku slouched more as he looked into the Kage's eyes. "A signature few jutsu, mission history of anything in the Ta no Kuni (Land of rice patties) area. Last and the worst, the old academy curriculum."
"The old academy curriculum, you mean to tell me someone stole our wartime student plans!?" Shikaku shook his head, "No, and that is the problem. On October 11th, the academy went through an overhaul, it received full support for the change. Only I don't remember anything about this in any council meetings. It just appeared in house fully signed." Hiruzen opened the file and read through it quickly, he was already preparing to shut it down in his head, but then he actually read through it. None of it was a bad idea, in fact he had wanted a harder curriculum for students for a while. He hadn't been able to because the civilians already found the current curriculum too hard.
But that still left something amiss, "Then why did our imposter steal that old plan versus this plan or the wartime plan?" "Our best theory is that the clone was ordered lazily, simply told to retrieve the old plans. It recognized that there was a change and it still completed its objective to get the old plan." Hiruzen thought on this for a while before saying carefully, "We got the better of this due to dumb luck and somebody making a restructure behind my back. I want a thorough sweep of all secure facilities don-" "Already done Hiruzen, two more clones were found. Inoichi is using them as a training exercise for Ibiki. Can't torture them physically for obvious reasons so psychological and chemical torture are their only options."
Shikaku sighed, "They haven't gotten anything yet, they are pulling 72 hour days to get this done." "How long have you sat on this information Shikaku?" Asked Hiruzen. The Nara clan head shrugged in an absent manner, "No more than a week, you were busy with the Uchiha backlash at the time." Both men sat in the uncomfortable wooden chairs and looked out into empty space thinking.
"What are we going to do about the academy Hiruzen?" The Sandaime Hokage waved a hand, "Trial it for a few years, it will help integrate the Uchiha back into the village at least." Shikaku nodded and picked up another sheaf of parchment and quickly jotted down the message and sent it to the academy. "I only hope this works out in the end." "I hope so too Shikaku, though only time will tell us." The two stared out at the small hawk flying away into the distance, carrying a message that would change the date of the world.